Different Things

This year, while at the lake, Kathie and I have been enjoying a number of new experiences, attractions, and sights in this region of northern Wisconsin. Outdoor adventures have included a (fun, but unsuccessful) Musky fishing experience on the Chippewa River with Dick, sharing Copper Falls State Park with Betsy and her family, our first trip to Pattison State Park with Peg and Rolland, the hikes to Morgan Falls and St. Peter's Dome with David and Robert, and the canoe trip down the Namekagon River, also with David and Robert. I have previously posted stories of most of these activities.

Kathie has also recently been having fun with a group of women who do regular walks (and sometimes an added kayak outing). I think they refer to themselves as Women of the Woods and Water (or something like that)––for all I know, they may even have a secret handshake. This is a shot of the group when they did a hike near Ghost Lake a couple of weeks ago.

What I want to share with you most today, though, are a couple of the fun and interesting times we have had at The Park Center in Hayward.

When The Park downtown movie theater fell on hard times, it was vacant for awhile until a group of civic-minded individuals arranged to purchase the building and to remodel it as a community entertainment and arts venue. They host events nearly every week. Many of the events are musical groups, but there are other types of things too. Click here for information about the center and its schedule of events.

A couple of weeks ago, we attended a very entertaining show featuring Michael Perry. I had previously read one of Perry's NYT best-selling books entitled Truck, which I recommend. Perry is a humorist, sometimes musician, and a radio personality on Wisconsin Public Radio (I wish Iowa Public Radio carried his shows). You might think of him as being like the Garrison Keillor of Wisconsin. His stories are often funny and always heart-felt. His books are similarly fun. I just finished reading his newest book entitled The Jesus Cow, which I also recommend. You can read more about Perry at his web site, which is entitled SneezingCow.com. This name comes from one of his punch lines, "Seriously! Never stand behind a sneezing cow!" This is something a farm boy like me understands well.

Last night we attended an event at The Park Center called Manhattan Short. Click here for more information. This was a screening of ten short films from all around the world. Manhattan Short is a competition each year. After entries are winnowed down to a select few (ten this year out of almost 700 entries), the films are presented in venues all around the world, and viewers are given the chance to vote for the best film and favorite actor. If a prior year's entries have been screened in Iowa City in the past, we have failed to take notice––seems like a natural event for a city like ours. If you go to the web site, take a look at the 2015 finalists (or click here). These are the films we saw last night, and all were excellent. Some were difficult to watch because of the subject matter dealing with conflict and hardship; others were quite funny. All of them were stimulating, interesting and thought-provoking. Each one gave us an opportunity to reflect on the world we live in and to maybe better appreciate and understand cultures and situations different from our own. If you have a way to view any of these films in the future or to find them available for streaming, we encourage you to give them a look. If you look at the schedule of venues at their web site, you will see that they are being shown in West Burlington at several times through October 1st. It wouldn't be a wasted trip to travel there to see them.

There are a few more things we may try to do before we return to Iowa in a couple of weeks. Among these are a local cranberry festival in Stone Lake and the apple festival near Bayfield.